Monitoring cardiac events is of clinical importance in the early detection of potentially fatal conditions. Current technologies involve contact sensors the individual must wear constantly. Such a requirement can lead to patient discomfort, dependency, loss of dignity, and further may fail due to a variety of reasons including refusal to wear the monitoring device. Elderly patients and those suffering from cardiac conditions are even more likely to suffer from the adverse effects of continued monitoring. Unobtrusive, non-contact, imaging based methods are increasingly needed for monitoring cardiac function.
Accordingly, what is needed in this art is a system and method for determining cardiac function from video images captured of a region of exposed skin of a subject of interest.